NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2007, 26 July 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Calamo, Lou River, Chile, is believed lo be the most nearly cloudless of any easily accessible place in (he world. A record for two years shows perfectly cloudlessness for about two- thirds of the time. France estimates that the total physical damage done to buildings during the war will reach the round figure of 500,000 structures; and that of these, at least half (250,000) have been completely destroyed. Thirty-three men of the "Casemen I brigade,” besides the two who testified in the trial of Sir Roger Casement for high treason, have been repatriated. The British Government is considering their case. At the beginning of the war, Great Britain’s capacity for manufacturing airplanes was not greater than 100 per year. At the time the armistice was signed she was turning out planes at the rate of 800 a week. Before the war the German Air Travel Company, which was run by the Hamburg-America Steamship Company and subsidised by the German Government, carried 17,000 passengers in its airships without an accident. Sedan-chairs were originally made at Sedan, in France, and introduced into England in the reign of James I. They were in general use in the eighteenth century, when they were the usual means of carriage for ladies and gentlemen. The mystery of a “ghostly” preacher who delivers jeremiads from the dpths of a lonely wood near Roscommon continues. His latest “prophecies are: —“An earthquake in July, which will ruin a great part of.the world. Internal 1 roubles in the-great empires of the world.” At Ibis stage a number of young men dashed into the wood, but failed to capture anybody. A few state that they saw an “abnormally large man’!, scampering ahead of them through the wood. About 100,000 tons of coal were shipped-from Spitsbergen to Scandinavian countries last year. Promising samples of iron ore have been received from this archipelago, other mineral resources of which include gypsum in enormous quantities, asbestos, copper ore, oil shale and probably free oil. The stinger of the honey hoe, in proportion to its size, is said to he the most effective infernal machine in existence. The stinging apparatus is smaller Hum that of a rattlesnake, being almost invisible, in fact, yet a single sling has been known to kill a man. It seems the very quintessence of dcvilishness. Complaints that men are leaving the land in order to obtain the unemployment donation were made at a meeting of the Nottinghamshire War Agricultural Executive. It was officially reported that, while the owner of a threshing machine was engaged on a local farm four of his men left the machine at midday and went to the nearest unemployment exchange to sign on for the unemployed donation, and that when the employer also went to the exchange he found another of his men, who had already been paid for work, drawing the donation. The Merton parish register, which is being prepared for publication, contains entries relating to Nelson, who resided for a time at Merton Alibey, and worshipped at the parish church. One entry, referring to the attendance of Nelson at the baptism of a nephew, records: —“This baptism has been postponed for two years owing to the godfather being out of the country on the King’s business,” which was the bottling up of the French fleet. Another relates to the baptism of a Nubian or Egyptian girl brought to Merton as, a present for Lady Hamilton.